Five Little Things

Five little things on my plate today:

Thing 1: Making warm, delicious, nutty, steel cut oats for breakfast.
Thing 2: Shovelling snow out of the driveway for the 4th time this week... Oh, Canada!
Thing 3: Bringing in wood for the woodstove.
Thing 4: Re-reading a few pages in one of my favourite little books, "The Art of Living" by Epictetus (A New Interpretation by Sharon Lebell).
Thing 5: Working on two new quilting projects: this one from the other day, and a brand new one I'll be releasing to the shop in the not-too-distant future if all goes as planned...

All in all, it's shaping up to be a good one.

♥M

Disclosure: The above post contains an affiliate link.

When Black Is Good

But for now, they're an interesting shade of... What would you call that colour? Salmon?

Once they turn black, we're going to have us one dandy treat... I'm quite looking forward to it!

♥M

The Boy Discovers Fresh-Picked Peas

I've spent the last few weeks insisting that The Boy pick, shell, and eat the sweet green peas that are now ready in the garden. I've put up with grumbling, scowls, stamping of feet even. But despite these, I've continued to insist steadfastly.

My hope was to witness, in the fullness of time, that spark of awareness of the natural deliciousness of these viney vegetables. 

My efforts paid off. 

The Boy now picks, shells and eats with enthusiasm! I'm quite pleased with myself (and him).

Of course, his favourite way to eat the peas is right out of the freshly-picked pods. That happens to be my favourite way too.

My second favourite way is to sprinkle a generous handful on green salads. He's not so sure about that.

But I think it's just yummy.

How 'bout you? Do you eat fresh-picked peas? What's your favourite way to have them?

♥M

This heritage pea variety is Alaska (a.k.a. Earliest of All).

Peppermint Iced Tea with The Injured Boy

Yesterday, The Boy broke his pinky finger playing some new-fangled version of basketball in gym class. This is the second time he's broken a bone at school. He's in Grade 2! I'm none too impressed with those stats to be honest.

So today we ran around from health office to x-ray clinic to doctor's office trying to figure out what, if anything, they could do about it. Is there nothing to be done for a tiny mangled finger? Because it does NOT look healthy, poor thing. In the meantime, I was very aware of trying to keep him from breaking anything else. Running was strictly prohibited. There was no jumping of ANY kind. Zero throwing of balls. Breathing was acceptable. And some talking.  I allowed eating, and careful walking.  He spent a lot of time reading; that was okay.

But the absolute most excitement I permitted was making freshly-picked peppermint iced tea. It was our first time making it. We followed Stefano Faita's (host of CBC's In The Kitchen) recipe (found HERE) to the letter.

The Boy refused to try it. But I had some and so did Lo. It had a quiet taste, our tea. We quite enjoyed it. But the best part? No bones were broken during the making of it.

Hallelujah for that.

♥M

Every Mother's Dream

That their children eat their greens.

Make these chips once. Serve. Watch as the chips vanish. Then, wait...

One day, out of the blue, your child might just surprise you with the following question: "Could I have spinach for a snack?"

It happened to me. It could happen to you too.

Get the recipe HERE. Thank you Food Faffer. I can't think of a better Christmas gift for a parent!

You have a lovely day now. I'll be back soon. ♥M